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Yes, there were a lot of unresolved feelings for him. Yes, I was hurt by what happened between us and how our fathers forced us apart.
Despite everything, my recollection of who we once were together and the depth of our affection for each other was sufficient to hold onto a small glimmer of optimism that we might be able to rekindle something similar in the future.
I tried to prevent myself from falling over the side of a cliff about this, though. What if he hadn’t meant date? Truly, it could have just been a word with no meaning.
But then why would Liam have even pitched in the last two days and given so much time to aid me in completing the orders? He was much too busy to be doing something like that if he didn’t feelsomethingfor me.
I changed out of my clothes and took the fastest shower known to mankind. Then I pulled my hair out of the bun it’d been tired up in all day and brushed it out, hoping to find something manageable. I tamed it enough to put it back into a much neater bun that would look good with my dress. Some quick makeup and freshly brushed teeth later, and I was shimmying into the dress and searching for shoes.
Unfortunately for me, the best shoes for this outfit were heels. Adorable, fashionable strappy black heels that would show off my pink toenails, but probably kill me on the walk to wherever we were going.
I sucked it up. For fashion.
The second my heels were on, a knock sounded at the door. I grabbed a small purse from my closet that matched the dress and shoved lip gloss and my keys into it before scurrying to the door. My heart was beating way too fast and I could already feel the creep of blush on my skin. He would know immediately that I was nervous about thisdatewith him.
With a deep breath and a bit of mental coaching to myself, I opened the door.
Liam stood there looking absolutely stunning—which wasn’t out of the usual. How he’d managed to go to his apartment, get ready, and come back so quickly was insane to me.
He wore black slacks and a grey button-up shirt. A simple outfit, really, but he made it look like a million bucks. His silver watch glinted as he held out his hand for me to take.
I took his hand and locked my apartment.
Any hope I had for getting through this walk without excruciating pain in my feet was lost, as every step shot spikes up my legs. I tried my best to keep it cool as we walked out of my apartment building and down the street, but I was walking so slow that I knew Liam would figure it out.
“Why did you wear those shoes?” He asked, looking down at the very nice-looking shoes. Little did he know that they were actually evil.
“You don’t like them?” I asked, looking away from him and focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.
“They look amazing, but you’ve been on your feet all day. I figured you would have picked something more comfortable.”
“Comfort is for weaklings. Fashion comes first.” I shrugged, even though I would love nothing more than to chuck these shoes across the street and never see them again.
“You haven’t changed one bit, have you?” He teased, but there was such warmth in his voice that I knew he liked it.
“Nope!” I’ve always been a bit of a fashionista, and he knew from our past that I would always wear a cute outfit if I could, practicality be damned.
I tried to guess where we were going as we walked, but I couldn’t think of a single restaurant on this side of town. We’d walked in the opposite direction of our bakeries. This side of the town had many hotels and condos, so I wasn’t super familiar with anything over here.
Liam led us into a hotel—the Ritz, to be exact—and I was getting even more confused. Until I saw the entrance to the restaurant that the hotel housed, and my jaw nearly hit the floor.
I thought about protesting, but there were people around and I would rather die than say anything that would embarrass either of us in this public setting. We were surrounded by people in high-end suits and dresses and they all looked like they were millionaires from the books that I read.
“SALT”, the sign read. Growning up here, I knew what Salt was, but I just never imagined thatthiswas where Liam would be taking me. This restaurant was probably the highest-end restaurant on the island.
I felt incredibly underdressed and knew that I would have to whisper-yell at Liam later for not telling me how nice I should have dressed up.
He walked us right up to the hostess stand. “Reservation for Ackworth.”
“Yes, sir. Your table is right this way.” The hostess gave us both a small smile and walked deeper into the restaurant. The lighting was the perfect balance between bright and dim, giving the place a very sultry but classy feeling. There were beautiful wooden frames around the doorways, and the ceilings were inverted. There wasn’t a thing about this restaurant that wasn’t beautiful.
I nearly gasped when the hostess motioned to our table. It was in front of a massive window that showed the ocean just thirty yards away. The beach was lit up and private, giving us the most spectacular view. Even as an island resident, I wasn’t used to views this stunning.
Liam pulled my chair our and helped me into my seat before taking his own.
“You really didn’t have to take me here,” I said, though I couldn’t stop looking at all of the fine details that surrounded us. “I would have been happy with McDonalds.”
“You deserve it,” He replied, grinning as he picked up his menu.
